- Thin coats of paint provide better coverage, as if it's too thick, it'll dry before it's where you want it to be which wastes your time, the paint and makes the miniature depressed.
- Thinned too much isn't good for anything other than a glaze. If it's too thin, it'll simply run off the brush, so either add more pigment to the mix or leave it fifteen/thirty minutes to stiffen a little in the palette.
- Undercoat and undercoat again. Thin coats or careful spray work mean you can afford two undercoats for full coverage without obscuring detail; the key is patience.
- If painting a character figure, paint a unit of rank and file at the same time. Not only will you probably be using a cross-section of the same colours (and therefore less potential waste), but you can do the block painting while your character figure dries to perfection.
- Patience and chilled music. When I play quicker tempo music, I feel the urge to paint faster and that's no good for precision. Lamb of God are great, but they're no friend to me when painting whereas Peter Gabriel rocks my acrylic world. Your music may vary.
- You want at least two water jars. One for normal paints and one for metallics. Also ensure you have lids for both so when they're inevitably knocked over between sessions by passing attention-whores of cats, at least the damage is minimised.
- Coffee cup should be kept out of immediate reach to avoid inadvertently cleaning brushes in your beloved filter brew.
- Keep an unloved, thin tipped brush on standby. When your paint runs where it shouldn't do, moisten the bristles of this brush and pull the unwanted paint off the affected area quickly.
- Lots of light. Paint by a window, with the light on in the room, a low-heat, height adjustable desklamp too. Multiple light sources are a joy to utilise.
- Dropper bottles are a little 17ml piece of heaven. Vallejo paints provide me a mechanism for measuring and repeating my paint mixing formulas with alarming regularity.
- Stop painting as often as you paint because when you're focusing on a small area constantly, it will inevitably strain the ocular muscles. take regular breaks (go make a coffee, brownie points with t'other half, or tidy up) normally I do this when changing colours so there's no paint being left to dry.
- Don't have your desk facing a blank wall. Try to position it facing a window to give yourself more natural light as well
- Left handed like me? Put your desktop lightsource to the top right-hand corner of the desk. Weirdo right handers put it top left-hand corner. That should give you maximum light to your painting area and ensure you're not working in your own shadow.
Painting Tips
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